New CO: ML resolution
by dleep
Summary: The ML resolution to New CO, for all those that asked for it. (And those that didn't.) Enjoy!
1. Happily Ever After?

_A/N: Yep, the first of the two part M/L resolution to New CO is finally here. Sorry about the delay, I'd forgotten about it. Completely. And this is in a slightly different shape from where it began, so it isn't as M/L as it used to be. But the next chapter will be. Enjoy. _

_This is unbetaed, so blame me for any mistakes!!_

New CO: M/L resolution 

Chapter one: Happily Ever After?

Max leaned closer to the edge of the space needle, feeling her hair whip around her face and taking a deep breath. 

"The escape was not my idea." She began in a clear voice. Hearing a laugh behind her, she spun around. "Zane, what are you doing here?" Max asked in a sweet yet slightly annoyed voice. 

"Not your idea?" The CO said by way of response. "You were drawing escape plans before you could walk. Hell, you probably faked those seizures." He walked up beside her and pushed her good-naturedly, staring out into the Seattle skyline. "What are you talking about up here anyway?" He asked. Max smiled knowingly. 

"Just something I do." She answered. 

"Should I be worried about this talking to yourself thing you do?" Zane asked with a wide grin. Max poked him before turning around. 

"Nope. Just clearing this stuff out of my head. Could you back up a bit? I'd like to finish." Zane let out an exaggerated sigh and stepped backwards. 

"The escape was not my idea. I mean....escape to what? We didn't know anything else." Max spoke louder as Zane snickered again. "It was Zack who said we had to leave. So, I guess he saved my life. I didn't think we should separate. But he wouldn't listen." 

"What did you expect? Not the greatest listening skills in the world, our Zack." Max abandoned her view of the skyline, spinning again to face Zane. 

"I told you not to interrupt!" She chastised, clearly annoyed. 

"Come on, Maxie. What, have you got this memorised? Can't you try a different tune?" Max sighed and turned, trying again.

"Sometimes it seems like it happened to someone else. Like maybe it was a story I heard." 

"Sure would make a lot more sense." Zane offered with a smile. With a frustrated sigh, Max gave up and went to sit beside her brother. 

"No happily ever after?" Zane teased with a smile. 

"Maybe." She grinned back happily. 

"Ah, Prince Batman and his Catwoman, riding off into the sunset." Zane quipped.

"On a ninja." Max cut in, leaning against him. 

"On a ninja." He agreed with a nod. 

"Zane?" She asked.

"Still here."

"What's going on with you and Brianna?" 

"Tell me and we'll both know. I have absolutely no idea about her at all. I understand nothing." Max laughed. 

"That's a good thing." Zane shook his head but stayed silent. 

"And what about you and Prince Batman?" Zane asked. "Can I expect to see you moving to the batcave anytime soon?" 

"You know, people might actually start to take you seriously if you dropped the comic book analogies once in a while." Max said, ducking the question. 

"It adds to my boyish charm." He grinned. Max rolled her eyes. 

"Whatever." She looked at Zane, who had his eyebrows raised, and sighed. "If I tell you something, do you swear never to repeat it, ever?" Zane gave her his most sincere look and drew an imaginary cross over his heart. "You can't tell anyone, not Jondy, or Kia, or Krit... especially not Logan." Zane nodded solemnly. Max took a deep breath. 

"I think I could love him." She let the sentence out with a rush of air, and looked as if she startled herself with the admission. Zane's smile spread from ear to ear. 

"He's someone that I could love." She continued, looking slightly puzzled. 

"What's that like?" Zane teased. 

"It's the scariest thing in the world. And the best thing in the world. All at the same time." Max smiled. "Does that sound stupid?" Zane shook his head. 

"Not to me. You guys are meant for each other, Maxie. Anyone can see it."  He smiled again. "I think you'll make it." She grinned back at him. 

"I think we will too. Who would have thought, a genetically engineered killing machine finding prince charming in a broken world?" The pair laughed. 

"I don't think that's exactly what the good folks back at Manticore had in mind for you." 

"Maybe it is. Maybe tomorrow Sebastian will crack the files and suddenly, Manticore's plans for catwoman and prince batman will come streaming onto the screen."

"Max." Zane said with an overexaggerated sigh. 

"Yeah?"

"It's only cute when I say it." He grinned. 

"Oh, shut up." 

"No, you shut up. Forget about talking to yourself, or the sky, or the blue lady or whatever that was and go and talk to Logan. Or whatever you guys do." Max smiled and rolled her eyes at Zane before taking his advice and retreating to the inside of the space needle. Zane watched her leave, then turned his eyes to the horizon. 

"Who knows," the CO said, taking his sister's place on the edge of the landmark. "Maybe there's a happily ever after out there for the rest of us too." Zane heard his sister's laugh from inside the space needle and smiled, glancing out at the skyline once more before turning to follow her.  


	2. The Shirt

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money from the use of characters and associated story lines. _

_A/N: Just something that hit me one night just as I was drifting off to sleep. This will be the final chapter of NCO: M/L resolution, but I'm working on the sequel to __New__ _CO___, (or rather, I intend to start- any day now) and there will be more M/L hidden in there somewhere. For now, enjoy!_

New CO: M/L resolution 

Chapter 2: The shirt

When I wake, she's not beside me, not occupying the side of the bed that more and more frequently is becoming hers. 

I worry for a millisecond until I see her through the open door, standing in the living room and staring out the window. 

She's wearing my shirt. 

We've come so far in only a few short months. Together we have taken on the last strains of Manticore, and struggled to figure out the multitude of mysteries that they left us as a parting gift. We've faced 'the year that wasn't' as I so joyfully call the year we denied each other, and ourselves. We've faced that year, talked through it, and revealed to each other deeply hidden insecurities that I sometimes think should have stayed deeply hidden. 

I see new differences in her every day, smiles come to her face more quickly, her laughs last a little longer, she's loosening up and relaxing, and slowly learning to stop looking over her shoulder. 

It's hard to fathom, Manticore being gone. A few nights a week I wake up and panic, thinking that we couldn't have done it, that they're still out there, hunting her, watching and waiting. It's nights like those that lead me to her apartment, sitting outside in my car without needing to go up, simply relieved that there isn't a military convoy blocking my view. Or I circle the space needle, trying to catch a glimpse of her from below. Hell, she's even taken to unplugging the phone some nights, for the sake of Original Cindy's sanity. 

These are the nights I love the best. When she's here, with me. The first night I tried to stay awake with her, and she laughed at my lack of concentration over a four o'clock in the morning chess game, and eventually found me nodding off in the kitchen, the spoon I'd used to make coffee still in my hand. Now when she stays, she waits until I'm asleep before climbing out of the bed, wandering around my apartment until dawn, acquainting herself with my computer system, playing chess against herself or skipping out to ride through the broken streets of Seattle on her motorcycle. 

Tonight, she's wearing my shirt. It means so much to see her in it, a sign of the distance we've travelled, how far we've come. We've beaten her ghosts, as much as is possible. We've beaten our own ghosts too, our insecurities, we somehow managed to swallow our respective prides and get through this, get to this point. 

It feels great, to have her wear my shirt. Max is free; she can never, and will never, belong to anyone. She exists only as herself, but there's something about her wearing my shirt that makes me feel as though she belongs to me, as much as any person can belong to another. 

She turns, as though she feels my eyes on her, and gives me a small smile before joining me in the bed once more. I'm glad that mind reading isn't a skill she possesses, or surely I'd be slapped for thinking such ridiculous thoughts. 

Ridiculous, yes. But here she is, cuddled close to me and wearing my shirt. 

I've never been happier. 


End file.
